Joe Biden closes his Irish bracket on a more intimate note

“Over the years, the stories here have become a part of my soul,” the US president said in a speech in Ballina, one of his family’s birthplaces.

Via Le Figaro with AFP

Posted 04/15/2023 at 09:38

A parenthesis, intimate and symbolic, before plunging back into the American political arena: Joe Biden He ended his visit to Ireland on Friday, where he was celebrated as a native son. “It really is like coming home. Over the years the stories from here have become a part of my soul“, the President of the United States, left the country In a speech at Ballina (Northwest), one of his family’s cradles, in front of about 27,000 eager spectators.

Following in the footsteps of his ancestors, his already emotional journey took a more personal turn the day before, when he visited the shrine of Our Lady of Knock. The US president, the only Catholic to occupy the White House with John Fitzgerald Kennedy, had planned to gather there privately.

“It was like a sign.”

He met there, which was unplanned, a former US Army chaplain Funeral services for his son Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015, Rev. Richard Gibbons told the BBC. “The President was crying and it really touched him and we prayed for his familysaid the priest.It was like a sign“, said Joe Biden in his speech before returning to America.

“Read more – Joe Biden, “Like Home” in Ireland

Democratic Party, with His other son, Hunterand her sister, Valerie, also visited a historical and genealogical research center Friday to closely trace the course of her maternal ancestors who settled in the mid-19th century.

The American president certainly didn’t wait to come to Dublin to proudly claim his heritage, which allows him to polish the image of a middle-class kid who grew up in a close-knit and hard-working family in Pennsylvania (Eastern).

“One of Us”

But when he said it in Dublin on Thursday, he wasDon’t want to go home“, one has to wonder if Joe Biden is really joking, as he gives free rein to his attachment to his distant ancestral homeland.”As the Irish saying goes, your feet will take you where your heart is“, he wrote in the guest book of his visit.

However, in his final speech in Ballina, he returned to more political overtones, extolling the shared values ​​of Ireland and America. “We are fighting for freedom and democracy“, and at the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, something he may face again in 2024, Donald Trump addressed the NRA, a powerful arms lobby.

“Read more – In Belfast, Joe Biden pleads for peace

“Even in times of darkness and despair, hope keeps us moving toward a brighter future of greater freedom, greater dignity, and greater opportunity.“, the Democrat repeated, taking up his favorite political refrain.

A bracket from distance

In recent days, starting with a whirlwind visit to Belfast, Joe Biden has actually mentioned serious things: blocking companies in Northern Ireland, War in Ukraine… But the Democratic Party seemed above all to give himself a bracket, away from world news and the campaign for the 2024 presidential election, in which he “thoughtTo throw himself up.

He took his time to chat, shake hands and take selfies in America, a violently divided and unpopular country. If Joe Biden had actually been celebrated in Ireland — “You became the most Irish of American presidents, not by your family tree, but by your soul“, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar assured him on Friday – the trip did not immediately arouse much interest in the United States. For example, the main American television channels did not broadcast his last speech live.